FFSA GT, Lédenon – Race Two Report
Titles For Debard, Gaillard And Parisy GT1 Qualifying The second qualifying session was for the top-seeded drivers. Once again, it was a Corvette front row; Soheil Ayari (#9 LAA Corvette C6.R) setting the pole position with a 1.16.686, two tenths ahead of Olivier Panis (#3 DKR Engineering C6.R). The second row was fully Larbre, Sébastien Bourdais (#2 Saleen S7R) being slightly quicker than Laurent Groppi (#1 Saleen). 
Laurent Groppi & Sébastien Bourdais |
Laurent Cazenave (#5 LAA C5-R) was fifth, Laurent Lasserre (#4 Tarrès Saleen) sixth and Eric Cayrolle (#7 SRT C6.R) seventh Race report During the formation lap Lasserre had a spin and was much delayed. On the first lap, Olivier Panis was really pushing hard and passed Groppi and Ayari on the outside to take the lead. Sébastien Bourdais had been careful at the start because he did not want to interfere in the championship fight. He was in fifth place, behind Panis, Ayari, Groppi and Cazenave. While Panis had widened the gap in the early stages on his contenders, Laurent Groppi afterwards set a strong pace. Under Groppi's pressure, Ayari had a spin and lost many positions. Soon after, Groppi came back very close to the leader before pitting. All drivers pitted late in the 28th lap for the driver changes. The pitstop of the #1 Larbre Saleen was very quick and Patrick Bornhauser could start ahead of the #3 Corvette, driven now by Eric Debard. Roland Bervillé was in third place behind the wheel of the second Larbre Saleen, while Ange Barde (#7 SRT Corvette) had moved up to fourth place, close to Bervillé.
Debard, wisely, did not resist Bervillé’s and Barde’s moves because both of them could not score any championship points. Patrick Bornhauser could cruise to the chequered flag for an easy win, 44 seconds ahead of Bervillé and 46 seconds ahead of Barde.
Eric Debard crossed the finish line in fourth place and, in doing so, claimed the championship title. DKR Engineering also claimed the team championship. 
Eric Debard & Olivier Panis |
In the GT1 standings, Debard is the winner with 281 points, Groppi/Bornhauser are second with 277 points , Panis (who did not race at Dijon due to LMS duties) is third with 243 points, Cazenave/Police are fourth with 234 points and Ayari/Hernandez fifth with 228 points. Full standings – here GT3 Qualifying Frédéric Makowiecki (#52 AS Events Ferrari 430 Scuderia) was first quickest, ahead of Ulric Amado (#58 First Racing Lamborghini) and Stéphane Ortelli (#68 ORECA Audi R8 LMS). Race report Makowiecki kept the lead at the start, ahead of Ortelli, Amado, Parisy (#64 Ruffier Racing Lamborghini), Campbell (#55 AS Events Ferrari), Hélary (#57 Ruffier Lamborghini), Moulin-Traffort (#66 GCR Mediaco Dodge Viper) and Thévenin (#59 Ruffier Lamborghini). Ortelli was charging and succeeded in passing Makowiecki in the Horseshoe Corner and kept the lead until the driver changes.
Yvan Lebon took over from him and after all the driver changes he was still in first place, ahead of Dubreuil (#58 Lamborghini), Snobeck (#52 AS Events Ferrari), Gaillard (#64 Lamborghini) and Peyroles (#59 Lamborghini). Positions did not change until the finish line and Lebon/Ortelli gave to ORECA and Audi a new win. Amado/Dubreuil finished in second place, ahead of Snobeck/Makowiecki. With their fourth position, Philippe Gaillard and Mike Parisy claim the championship title, with 228 points, two points only ahead of Amado/Dubreuil, 226, Arnaud Peyroles being in third place with 200 points. 
Mike Parisy (left) & Philippe Gaillard |
Championship standings - here Next year, the FFSA GT championship will be for GT3 cars only and the field should include alongside the regular Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Vipers and BMWs makes like Ford, Aston Martin, Corvette, Porsche and Morgan. Race 2 Lédenon results - here Claude Foubert | 
